The Milk River Observation Point is situated atop one of northeastern Montana’s tallest points, offering a spectacular view of countless miles of indigenous land and the confluence of the Milk River and Missouri River. Here, you are standing in the footprints of Meriweather Lewis and William Clark of the famed Lewis and Clark expedition. They arrived here on May 8, 1805, welcomed by a sight so remarkable that Lewis recorded it in his journal. “...The water of this river possesses a peculiar whiteness, being about the color of a cup of tea with the admixture of a tablespoon full of milk.” Because of its milky hue and consistency, Lewis and his fellow explorers declared its moniker the Milk River. The explorers concluded that the river before them was the “river which scolds at all others” which the Hidatsa Indians had first told them about during their stay at Fort Mandan.

The Milk River begins 732 miles west of here in the shadow of the Rocky Mountain Front of northern Montana and travels north into the Canadian province of Alberta, before turning southeast, creeping down the unapparent slope of the northern high plains, winding through prairies and woodland until it mingles with Missouri River here at the confluence. Unbeknownst to Lewis and Clark, the distinctive color of the Milk River is the result of fine clay and silt sediments that erode along the river basin hundreds of miles from here and remain suspended in the waters as it flows through Montana.

The Milk River Observation Point and trail offers not only a chance to step into the past with Lewis and Clark but gives you a perfect view of the river and the country through which it passes.